The Time of My Life
by Naeryn
Summary: Post Series. When Lorelai has a nasty encounter with her ex husband, Luke must either rise to the occasion, or leave Lorelai forever. LL!
1. Shattered

**All right folks: This is going to be long, angsty, and very, very anti-Christopher. So if you like Chris, I strongly advise that you stay the hell away from this fic. Or, really, any GG fics I may choose to write. Feedback is, of course, loved and appreciated, as always. Flames will be responded to with more wit than you have, if all you can come up with is "UR STORY SUXORZ!" It's kind of sad how frequently I see that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. Which is too bad, because if I did, I'd have to have met Lauren Graham at some point, which would give me the opportunity to hit on her and/or flirt with her shamelessly.**

* * *

Her legs disappeared. She couldn't feel them anymore; they were simply gone. With a choked sob, Lorelai collapsed on the top step of Luke's. Rory was gone, on her plane off to Iowa, and then to god-knows-where. Off taking the world by storm, the way Lorelai – and indeed, everyone in Stars Hollow – had always known she would.

She'd taken Rory to the airport and seen her on her eight thirty flight. Turning away as the plane took off was, quite possibly, one of the most painful experiences of her life, followed by another of an entirely different sort. How things could go from bad to worse so quickly. She'd meant to drive straight home and collapse into bed again – she really didn't want to face this day. Tomorrow, Lorelai could handle it. Today was too much.

Somehow, she hadn't even made it home. She'd driven half a block past Luke's and pulled over, the sensation of last night's kiss dancing over her lips, and the feeling of safety making her want nothing more than to dive into his arms.

Of course, Lorelai had absolutely no idea how Luke would take that, but she had to find out. She just prayed that, if he had some sort of problem, he could wait to hash it out. She just needed to feel safe – just for a minute.

Which would have worked, if she'd been able to actually make it into the diner. Yet, she'd stumbled before making it even that far, sitting down hard on the stone steps.

"Lorelai? Lorelai?" She felt a hand on her shoulder, a gentle, reassuring pressure. She still had shoulders, not all of her body had drifted away just yet. "Why are you down there? Come inside."

A lovely idea, of course. The only problem was that she didn't have legs; didn't he see that? She refocused her eyes, looking down at her lap. What the hell? There were legs there. Ah, of course – they hadn't disappeared, she simply couldn't feel them. "Can't… feel my legs." The words came out half broken, nearly incomprehensible.

A hand slipped under her arm, pulling her upwards. "Come on Lorelai. You are coming inside…" Luke braced her half limp body against his own as he pulled the door open, "you are sitting down at the counter," he dropped her on one of the stools, carefully placing her so that she wouldn't fall off the thing, "and you are drinking some of this heinous, teeth-yellowing, cancer-causing stuff you're so addicted to." He passed her a cup of coffee.

Moments passed. Lorelai sat there, only slightly less limp than before, staring at the cup of coffee. She'd made no attempt to even grasp the handle of the mug, let alone lift it to drink. And while Lorelai sat and stared at her coffee, Luke stood and stared at Lorelai. Something was seriously wrong, far beyond Rory going off for this job. The Lorelai he knew would be sad, yes, depressed, even, but not… lifeless. The very concept of this woman being lifeless was alien to him; she of the caffeine-induced frenzy, sugar highs and endless pop-culture references, who put a new definition to the word 'quirky', could not ever be lifeless. Not this way; it was wrong.

He threw down the rag he clutched in one hand and walked back around the counter. Pulling one of Lorelai's arms over his shoulders, he called out, "Caesar, I'll be back in a little while, I'm going upstairs. Crisis."

"Crisis? Everyone okay?"

"Lorelai's not drinking her coffee."

"Shit. All right, I'll hold the fort. It's not like it's busy in here, anyway."

With barely a grunt in reply, Luke began to haul Lorelai up the stairs. She stumbled along halfheartedly, nearly falling to her knees at several points along the way. No sound came from her, save for the occasional muffled cry or shattering sob.

Oh yeah. Something was definitely, definitely wrong.

He pushed open the door and, after stumbling a few feet, eased Lorelai down into a sitting position on the side of his bed. He crouched in front of her, gripping her shoulders loosely. "Lorelai, look at me. What's going on?"

She coughed slightly. "I, uh, ran into Chris at the airport," she sniffed, reaching up with her left hand to wipe under her eyes. "My parents called him. Told him Rory was leaving, which flight she was taking, all that."

Luke reached out and tucked two fingers under Lorelai's chin, trying to get her to look at him. Instead she turned her head to the side so he could see even less of her. "Lorelai…"

"Luke, he… he was so angry. I don't know why he was so angry." She turned forwards again, face falling into her hands. "He yelled at me. Screamed. Called me a lying, cheating…" her voice broke. It didn't matter, Luke certainly got the picture well enough. "Then he… he…" her voice dropped to a whisper.

"What, Lorelai? What did he do?"

Instead of saying anything, Lorelai simply looked up, allowing Luke to see her face for the first time since six am. His eyes widened in shock momentarily before his features turned livid. One hand fell from Lorelai's arm and clenched into a fist at his side.

One eye was black, her mouth was swollen and red, and blood stained her upper lip.

* * *

Ahaha... yes, I know, you hate me, me and my damned cliffhangers.


	2. Bruises are Back in Style

**I mean this in the least offensive and best intended way: if you have problems with abuse scenes, stay far, far away. This chapter gets nasty, violent - and descriptive. In fact, I'm upping the rating to 'mature', because despite the fact that I could have handled it at fifteen, most teens I know couldn't.**

**I don't own Gilmore Girls, which is probably a good thing, given the hell I tend to put my characters through.**

* * *

For a moment, there was silence, and stillness. It hung over them, and neither was sure if the silence was comfortable or awkward. Luke only knew he could not take his eyes away from Lorelai – beautiful Lorelai, her face twisted by what that… that bastard had done. What else had he done to her?

He forced himself to relax, his clenched fist slowly easing its way open. There would be time enough later for that – and if the man knew what was good for him, he'd skip the country. He watched as Lorelai's eyes slowly dropped from his face, hiding her bruises from view again. Her hand lifted, tangling itself in the necklace she wore; the same one he'd given her just the night before.

Sighing, Luke stretched out his arms, pulling her close. He fell back as she fell forwards, the two of them winding up in a sitting position with Luke's legs spread and Lorelai curled between them, head on his shoulder and one hand braced against his chest. Carefully, Luke eased his arms around the woman. He didn't want to accidentally aggravate a hidden mark.

"I… I thought he was going to kill me, Luke." Lorelai shook her head, burying her face deeper into the slope between his neck and shoulder. And then she cried. It wasn't that Luke wasn't prepared to let Lorelai cry on his shoulder, but he immediately felt awkward. It was just one effect that both of the Gilmore girls had over him, along with their faster-than-a-speeding bullet speech – which sometimes felt like a bullet to the head, too – and those big blue eyes. When one of them – either one of them – started crying, he wanted to fix it.

He wanted to run off and pound Chris into the ground. He wanted to pile food and coffee in front of Lorelai, something that usually cheered her up, at least to an extent. He wanted to read bloody Shakespeare, if it would make her smile. Yet, part of him just wanted to hold her there and never, never let go.

Turning his head slightly, he planted a kiss on the side of her head, behind her ear; the most accessible spot just then. "Lorelai…" He whispered. "Lorelai, you have to tell me what happened. The whole story."

Lorelai pulled herself out of Luke's arms, just enough to look up into his eyes. They were troubled, full of concern and, underneath that, the love that she'd always seen there, whether she'd understood it at the time or not. "Rory got on the plane. I watched it take off. I turned around after it was gone, and Chris was standing there." She looked down, sighing.

_"Hey, Lor. Why didn't you tell me Rory was leaving?"_

_Lorelai lifted one hand in a noncommittal gesture. "Because I figured she'd tell  
you, if she wanted you to know? Because I only had three days' warning, and a hell of a  
lot to do, so if it wasn't written down, I didn't really think about it? I don't know,  
Chris. I just didn't."_

_He shook his head, looking at her half sideways. "Where did we go wrong, Lor?"_

_An impatient sigh slipped out of her. She really didn't want to have this conversation, not  
when she was already stressed. She felt hot tears begin to burn behind her eyes. "I  
don't know, Chris. But you were right – I was still in love with Luke. I am still in love  
with Luke. It just didn't work out between us."_

_"No, you're not. I get that now, I was just paranoid. You don't love him." He gave a  
short laugh. "You know how open to suggestion you are, that's all it is."_

_"Are you kidding me, Christopher? I think you'd better leave me alone now. I'm going  
home. I'm going home, sleeping for a few hours, and then I'm going to go see Luke."_

_Immediately, his eyes narrowed sharply. "You two are back together?" The words  
came out in a growl, the sound grating against Lorelai's ears._

_"Something like that." Was he trying to piss her off? 'Cause he was doing a damned  
good job of it._

_He reached out and grabbed her arm. Without another word, he started pulling her,  
off to who knows where. That was when Lorelai got scared._

"Lorelai?" Luke reached up and tangled his fingers in her hair. She'd stopped talking, but she hadn't stopped thinking. Her mind was still replaying what had happened. She needed to say it. He needed to know.

She shook her head and looked over at him again. "I'm sorry. I…" She took a deep breath. "He managed to drag me all the way out of the airport, not that we were far from the exit…"

_Chris pushed Lorelai up against the wall around the corner from the parking lot.  
No one would interrupt – they were screened from view by the carefully trimmed  
bushes that lined the edge of the blacktop two or three feet from the wall of the  
building. "Did you cheat on me with him?"_

_"What? Chris, no. I made that mistake once – cheating on Luke with you. Do  
you think I'd screw up that badly again? I may have my moments, but I'm  
not that stupid. Now let go of me."_

_His grip on her wrists only tightened, eliciting a tiny whimper from Lorelai.  
"You're lying to me, aren't you? Lying, cheating little slut. I shouldn't be  
surprised, I've seen the way you act around… well, everyone. Is it possible for you  
not to flirt?"_

_She shook her head fiercely. "What the hell are you on about, Christopher? And  
what happened to you?"_

_He dropped one of her wrists. She sighed in mild relief, and wondered how bad the  
bruise was going to be. How long she would have to wear long sleeves to avoid having  
the entire town asking questions. She looked down at her wrist, biting her lip, and then  
looked back up at Chris – just in time to see his fist before it impacted._

_Lorelai probably would have fallen over, if it hadn't been for the hand still digging into her  
other arm. She immediately put her free hand up to her cheek. "Christopher, what the  
hell do you think you're doing? Get away from me!" She pushed against him, trying  
to get away._

_Grunting in effort and anger, Chris pulled back and punched her again, this time making  
contact with her eye. She lost her balance; he dropped her. She landed hard on the ground.  
As Lorelai met his eyes, she felt fear grip her. Something in them was completely alien to  
her – he wasn't Chris anymore. At least, certainly not the Chris she knew._

_He kicked her hard in the stomach, making her double over. Dropping to his knees, he  
straddled her. "And you don't get it, Lor. I know you lied to me, I know you cheated on me,  
but we're meant to be together. I can overlook all that. I love you!"_

_"Please, Chris, don't do this. If you really love me, why are you…" she trailed off, eyes  
widening in fear, as he reached down and pulled up her shirt._

Lorelai's voice cracked. "I… I can't…" She fell to the side, slipping into the comfort of Luke's arms, familiar smell, and soft flannel shirt. She squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the stab of pain from the bruised right one.

For his part, Luke was in shock. He needed a definite yes or no, and then… well, he didn't know what. "Lorelai, did he… did he r-"

"Don't. Please, don't say it." She buried her face in Luke's chest, one hand gripping at his shirt. "Please, just… don't."

He nodded halfheartedly, tightening his grip on her. Well, there was his 'yes'. Which meant one thing – she needed to be taken to the hospital. The idea disgusted him, but he'd overcome is hatred of hospitals before, for her sake, and this was serious. There were few things he would consider as serious as this, and he doubted there was anything he'd consider more so.

"Lorelai… we need to take you to the hospital. Make sure you're okay." He kicked himself. "Not okay, you're obviously not okay, but, you know."

Her fingers convulsed, grip tightening. "I know." She pressed herself tighter against him, as though she was trying to slip into his body with him. At that moment, she wouldn't have minded, at least getting out of her own. It felt dirty. "Just… in a minute?" Her words were muffled by the fabric pressed against her swollen lips. "Please… just stay with me for a minute."

* * *

I are teh angst queen, yes? Reveiws, please? I've never actually written an abuse scene before; I need to know if I did it well enough! 


	3. The Secret Keeper

**Consider this disclaimed.**

* * *

Luke didn't think he'd ever been in a tenser situation. He sat in Lorelai's hospital room, holding her hand. They were waiting for the test results to come back. Despite the fact that Lorelai knew Chris, and knew he was clean, both were paranoid – besides, both knew that, once Lorelai was feeling better, she would have him in jail.

A much easier process when one had evidence.

He sat there, both hands cupped around one of Lorelai's, watching her. She didn't sleep, though her eyes were closed and her breathing was even. He wondered what effect this would have on their relationship. Would everything come to a screeching halt – now, when they finally seemed to be making some progress again? Would she want to jump too quickly, clinging on to anything she could? Would she simply run?

Leaning back a little, Luke let out a tired sigh. After everything, would she even be the same Lorelai he knew and loved?

Things weren't any easier to deal with in Lorelai's mind. Some of the physical pain had eased, and she was left with disbelief – and anger. First of all, who would have thought Christopher was capable of such a thing? Granted, he'd proved himself to be an asshole – time and time again, and had bordered on obsessive once or twice – but that was a whole new, and entirely foreign, level.

And how dare he? How dare he even touch her, let alone… Her hand tightened and clenched against Luke's. A slight smile formed on her lips. Luke. There were so many different sides of Luke. There were the simple ones: Cooking Luke, Dating Luke, Diner Luke – different from Cooking Luke, as he was never so sarcastic as he was in the diner, regardless of whether or not he was cooking. Then there were her favourites, Sweetheart Luke, and Flirty Luke, and Superhero Luke.

Sweetheart Luke was the one that picked her up outside the diner, dragged her in, and gave her coffee. Superhero Luke was the one she had now, right now, who was sitting there with her, in a hospital that he hated and made him sick, just because she was hurt and she needed him.

Superhero Luke was definitely her favourite. Gently, she turned her head towards him and opened her eyes. "Luke."

Immediately he sat up straight, alert and attentive. "Yeah? Do you need something? Oh, do you want me to call Rory?"

Lorelai smiled and squeezed his hand. "Thank you, Luke." She sighed. "I feel like Pinhead, but everywhere."

"Pinhead?"

"Guy with a bunch of pins in his head. Kinda creepy, very dirty." She let her eyes wander over the plain beige-white of the ceiling. "I hurt. I…"

"Well, good news." The door clicked shut, and Luke and Lorelai both looked over at the nurse, a kindly looking young black woman. She smiled at Lorelai, walking up beside her bed. "We've run full tests, on both you and… well, on him." She gave a sympathetic sort of half-grin. "There's absolutely nothing going on, so you should be absolutely fine. We've got your description down and a search out for the guy."

She glanced over at Luke. "Now, I know that there's bound to be at least one or two people that are going to want to hunt this Christopher down. Honestly, I don't blame them in the least. But you have to let the law deal with it. Understand? Do not go after him."

"Yeah." Luke sighed. "I know."

"Good." She turned back to Lorelai. "Well, if you're feeling up for it, you can go home any time now. Your clothes are still in the bag under your bed, so you can just get changed and head off if you like. Just make sure to let the receptionist know when you leave."

Lorelai nodded, moving to sit up. "All right, thank you, nurse." With a smile and a nod, the nurse left, closing the door behind her. Her arm buckled slightly and she winced. Immediately, Luke bolted up and wrapped one arm around her back, supporting her weight. She smiled gratefully up at him. "I'm, uh, still a little sore."

He shook his head. "You amaze me, Lorelai Gilmore." He pushed on her back, moving her to sit up fully. Not really thinking about what he was doing, he reached around behind her neck and untied the strings of the hospital gown. "You went through an insane ordeal just a few hours ago," he reached down and pulled up the bag of her clothes, "the kind of thing that breaks women, even strong women."

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Lorelai didn't really like it, but she knew she'd have trouble dressing herself anyway, hurt as she was. Besides, this was Luke.

In silence, they finished getting her dressed. Lorelai stood, slipping into her shoes as she did so, and stumbled a little. She gave a halfhearted, nervous laugh. "Sorry. My feet aren't really listening to my brain right now."

Luke nodded, wrapping one arm around her waist. Lorelai tensed a little, feeling less comfortable now that she was preparing to leave. With a faint sigh, Luke withdrew his arm, instead holding it out for her to take if she chose. She smiled apologetically up at him for a moment, before they headed out towards the front desk.

* * *

Lorelai fought the urge to scream. She was standing behind the counter at the Dragonfly, listening to one man complain about each individual fee on his bill, Michel rant in his irritating way about the plants not growing large enough on the north side of the inn, and three children laughing in the highest pitch she would have thought possible as they chased each other in circles around a table.

Finally she chucked the pen she was holding down on the counter. "Michel! If you don't think the plants are good enough, YOU do something about it. Call a gardener, get some fertilizer, get down on your hands and knees and fix it yourself, just stop bitching to me!" She turned on the customer. "You used all of these services, _sir_, ate everything out of your minibar, and ate twice your weight in food. Pay the damn bill, and leave!" Stamping her feet, she whirled and strode into her office, slamming the door as she did so.

Michel, after a moment's shock, turned to the customer. "I am very sorry, sir, she has been quite on edge lately. Perhaps there is something I could help you with?" He forced a genial smile to his lips and prepared to attempt to repair Lorelai's damage. What on earth was going on with her?

Her legs fell over one arm of the big comfy chair in her office, and her neck rested on the other. One arm was raised, hand pressed over her eyes. _What the hell am I doing? I shouldn't be acting like this._ She sighed and turned her head, burying her face in the cushy back of the chair. _I need to be left alone for a little while. That's all. Maybe I should call Rory… no, I don't want to ruin the job for her. She'd either come home, or feel guilty because she couldn't. Why am I even thinking about this? I decided already that I wouldn't think about it anymore. Okay, I'm not thinking about it. I'm thinking about… Luke. What exactly are we right now? I don't know… he said he wanted me to be happy. What if being happy means being with him – can he do that? Does he want to? He was really supportive yesterday… no, I'm not thinking about that. Why do I always do this? Why can't I ever focus on just one thing to think about at once? Why does my mind always wander? I don't get it. I wonder if I could get a book on that. I wonder if I could actually sit down and read an entire book on thought process. Probably not, I'd probably get bored and want to watch a movie. I should rent a movie tonight, distract myself…_

A sharp tap on her office door snapped her out of her thoughts. Quickly she heaved herself up off the comfy chair and hurried around behind her desk. "Come in!"

Nothing happened for a moment. Lorelai looked up and saw Sookie, standing in the doorway, with a knowing look on her face. "So, who pissed you off? You're acting nutty again, and worse than when we opened this place."

"I'm not acting nutty!"

"The nutty usually…"

"Don't know they're nutty, I know, I know. We've had this conversation before." She sighed. "I've just been stressed, Sook. I didn't mean to snap at Michel, and I really didn't mean to snap at Mr. Stratford, but I just… I snapped." She gave a tired smile, giving up the charade of looking busy. "Please, just leave it at that."

Sookie sighed and nodded, backing out of the office. "All right, Lorelai. Listen, you should come out to KC's with me sometime. Soon. I don't want you to dwell."

Lorelai's eyes narrowed a little. "Dwell? I do dwell. I dwell in a house. If I didn't dwell, well…"

"Lorelai. I don't want you to dwell on the fact that Rory's gone. Not Yale gone, but gone gone." She sighed again. "I worry about my best friend sometimes."

Waving her hand in the air, Lorelai tried to brush it off. "I'm fine, Sookie. Really. I just didn't really sleep well last night is all."

Nodding, Sookie backed out of Lorelai's office and closed the door quietly. Relieved, Lorelai flopped back against her chair, arms hanging limply over the arms.

* * *

And the plot thickens! Bwahahaha! Anyways, reviews? Please? Pretty please with decapitated Christopher on top?


End file.
